1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to computer-related and/or assisted systems, methods and computer program devices for web enabling devices, web-enabling applications and/or the monitoring and controlling, via user interfaces, of remote devices. More specifically, it relates to methods and systems for providing a web-enabled application, i.e. enabling the automatic generation and customization of remote controlling and monitoring capabilities, e.g. over the world wide web, for applications running on devices, e.g. having embedded systems, and real-time monitoring and control of such devices, thereby providing enhanced and widely accessible user interface functionality.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disseminating and acquiring a wide variety of information, such as news, sports and prices, by the Internet is already a fact of life, in the office as well as the home. Doing business over the Internet is becoming enormously popular. The accessibility and usability of the Internet pervades our society.
A number of areas remain, however, in which full exploitation of Internet capabilities has not yet been achieved. One such example is in the field of remote monitoring and controlling of various devices, whether at home or in connection with a business. This field is lagging far behind and does not take advantage of the possibilities that Internet technology provides.
A conventional device may be controlled by an embedded system. The embedded system may provide a user interface for control by a user, whether the user interface is a complex set of screens, an LED display, or even a simple set of buttons and indicators. One example of a device with an embedded system is a computer printer, in which the embedded system providing a basic user interface such that a user can manually push buttons, start and stop printing, and otherwise control the printer and examine its status.
Even if a device does not have a user interface, it almost always requires or provides some facility for remote monitoring, remote control, and/or remote debugging. Consider, for example network devices such as switches, routers, telemetry devices, etc. These are fairly well developed in terms of Internet integration. That is, these types of network devices may usually be monitored and configured remotely, such as from the Internet. Type of control may include, for example, the capability to issue control commands and the capability to deliver a software upgrade.
Similar technology may be applied to other devices used in other fields, including commercial, domestic, military, etc. For example, there is no reason why domestic devices, such as cars, telephones, power supplies, refrigerators and other large and small appliances, and so on will not be connectable to the Internet. In the future, this type of connectivity may be ubiquitous.
One barrier that delays such a major change in the way people live and work is connectivity, or more precisely, a lack of connectivity to such devices. Many such devices are not accessible remote, and more only be accessed by a local and/or manually by user.
Nevertheless, there is little question that ubiquitous connectivity is just around the corner. Moreover, having the ability to monitor and control most systems remotely will add yet another significant incentive for connecting devices. In any case, it seems safe to assume that many if not most devices in the future will be computer-enabled, such as via embedded system. With the computer control, such devices will have the technical possibility of supporting connectivity technology.
Unfortunately, even where conventional systems provide the ability to be remotely monitored and/or controlled, these conventional systems fail to provide software tools to provide sufficiently operational interfaces, useful in connection with management of such devices remotely, e.g., over the web. Thus, using conventional systems it is not possible to allow such devices to be conveniently managed. For example, these devices typically require installation of special purpose software to enable monitoring and/or control. A significant drawback is that they cannot be managed by standard web browser from anywhere on the Internet. For these and other reasons, the user interfaces may not be very user friendly. As another example, even if a device may be remotely monitored and/or controlled, it might not provide real-time updates relating to the device. Further, even if remote monitoring and/or controlling is provided, there may be significant limitations to the network with which the system is used, e.g., only limited support may be possible for a complex and/or busy device due to bandwidth limitations. Another limitation to functionality provided may be the capacity of the embedded system on the device. Further, these user interfaces are not conducive to customizing, even if they are customizable.
Hence, there remains a need for such a system and method to alleviate the problems outlined above, and others. There is still a need for the provision of web-enabled applications.